SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - A dozen men whose biological
children were placed for adoption in Utah without their consent
have sued the state in federal court, claiming its tangled
network of rules unconstitutionally strip them of their parental
rights.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in U.S. district court in
Salt Lake City, said Utah's adoption law creates a "confusing
labyrinth of virtually incomprehensible legal mandates and
impossible deadlines."

Those rules have resulted in the "unconstitutional removal
of children from their biological families, essentially
resulting in their kidnapping and highly unethical and
disruptive placement into adoptive homes without the knowledge
or consent of their biological fathers," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit follows a high profile legal battle last year in
which a Native American father from Oklahoma lost custody of his
daughter, known as Baby Veronica, to a South Carolina adoptive
couple selected by the girl's biological mother.

The men in the Utah case are seeking unspecified monetary
damages, saying Utah's rules violate a biological father's right
to due process and equal protection.

Their biological children - six boys and six girls - were
born in Utah between June 2006 and November 2012, court
documents show. None of the men married the mothers of
their children.

Each tried to stop his child from being adopted, with mixed
results, the men's attorney, Wesley Hutchins, said in an
interview. Two were able to prove paternity in time to block an
adoption, and a third had his child's adoption overturned by the
Utah Supreme Court, he said.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the state, the
Attorney General's office and former attorneys general John
Swallow and Mark Shurtleff. A telephone call to the Attorney
General's Office was not immediately returned on Thursday.

NO LEGAL CONSENT

Under Utah's law, a child aged six months or less can be
adopted without the legal consent of an unmarried biological
father unless the man has already initiated a petition to
establish paternity.

To do so, a father must prove he is financially able to
support the mother during pregnancy, able and willing to assume
custody of the child and prove that he can support the child
financially.

Biological mothers and adoption agencies have essentially
exploited that aspect of the law and ignored provisions that say
the "rights and interests of all parties" affected by an
adoption must be considered, the lawsuit contends.

"The majority, if not all, of the illegal adoptions
accomplished in Utah are ostensibly given a stamp of judicial
approval through an adoption process that has effectively
legalized fraud and kidnapping," the lawsuit states.

Hutchins said Utah's adoption statute also includes
so-called "fraud immunity laws," which he said have turned the
state into a "stop and drop" place for unwed mothers who want to
put their newborns up for adoption without the consent of the
fathers, Hutchins said.

Of the men who sued, just two are from Utah, while the
remainder hail from other states.

Hutchins said he believes 300 or more men may have been
affected by Utah's law and said he was considering seeking a
class action certification of the lawsuit.